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Really, are OKRs just for senior leadership?
Hey folks! My name is Michael Davis, and I've been practicing OKRs for...quite some time. I founded Ally.io's strategic services practice, and lead a team of OKR coaches here at Microsoft. One of the most common questions I've gotten in side conversations with clients and members of their organizations is simply: why should I use OKRs? It seems like something that's really intended for senior leaders who just want more visibility into what's happening While OKRs certainly help to provide visibility for senior leadership, it does the same for employees throughout an organization. But wait: visibility is not enough, you still haven't answered the question: why should I use OKRs? Here are some reasons why, and why they're particularly valuable for teams A quick way to stay aligned on team goals, supporting initiatives A great way to stay in sync with your manager or direct reports without having to nag people constantly in 1-1 chats or e-mails You can leverage Dashboards to run team meetings and track notes / action items over time in ONE place Bonus: Businesses run with a focus on strategic priorities and metrics. Getting into the habit of thinking in these patterns can be extremely beneficial over one's career in the long run! But practically, how do I get started? Do I have to train everyone on my team on OKRs? The simple answer is No. OKRs are a skillset that gets nurtured over time, and many people need time to really build and hone this skillset. A great way to start with Viva Goals is simply to enter existing goals into the system, and start using it in your team meetings or bi-weekly / monthly reviews. Over time, you can use our plethora of resources to upskill your team(s) at a pace that makes sense for your business.
Issues with Alignment Function
We are suddenly having an issue with Objective Alignment. Prior to this week, we were able to align Objectives to any other Objective or KR in the system. As of yesterday morning, we can only align Objectives to other Objectives within the same team. Is anyone else experiencing this? Any ideas on why this is occurring?Three Best Practices for Strategic Alignment
Viva Goals is a tremendous piece of software for strategic alignment. It makes your strategy functional to cascaded individuals, transparent to the organization, and actionable against the key results you input to measure. What’s more: the technology is straightforward and easy to use. #itMayAsWellBeAnAdButItsNot But what does it mean to use the software? Here’s a few best practices as you get started. It’s as much about the process as it is the result. I work for McChrystal Group, and for years our teams have been helping organizations build their analog plan on a page. A strategic document acting as a written record north star of where the organization is headed and what it wants to accomplish. Note that this is “helping them build their document…,” not because we can’t do it for them, but because the process of aligning leaders in an organization (e.g., voicing their goals and limitations, prioritizing and deprioritizing) is as much a part of the synthesis as is the typing it into Word or PowerPoint. The alignment process is not socializing a document and convincing leaders to execute on it; when done correctly, alignment is achieved in the process of writing of composing the document. The same is true for Viva Goals. Using the software is about the process of identification and prioritization as much as it is about the key punches and clicks into the platform. It’s as much about the process as it is the result (again)? Successful organizations who use their strategy would see Viva Goals as an operating system for their business. The platform houses the single source of truth for progress towards objectives and what needs to be done next. Organizations should create what McChrystal Group calls an Operating Rhythm – but you can call it whatever you want. The intentional and purposeful set of meetings cadenced weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly – to perform the Goals check-ins, report ups, and cross-functional awareness briefs to push the strategy forward. A good OKR process flags to all levels things that are working and should be replicated, as well as those barriers that may need support to overcome. The process of establishing an Operating Rhythm that works for your business, adapting it as necessary, and having the discipline to adhere to it is how you leverage strategy for action and stay aligned to it. Remember what the purpose of a priority is. If everything is a priority, then nothing is a priority. If you want your company to align around a strategy, try to be parsimonious – you can be detailed, but try not to add too many main goals, or else you run the risk of making your strategy a muddled to-do list. People do well at saying what they will do, but they don’t do so well at saying what they’ll stop doing. There’s plenty of space to assign tasks, objectives and key result owners if you choose to engage with Viva Goals as you cascade your priorities down. However, if your top-level priorities number as many as 9 or 10 (or in some cases, even fewer), senior leadership may not have aligned around one mission. Consider thinking of a simple framework to build the strategy around – perhaps a few major buckets like your people, your product, and your customers. You can still cascade within them, and your major strategies can have aspirational elements. But if your goal is to align the organization, muddying your priorities can muddy your peoples’ vision. Just because it’s simple and direct doesn’t mean a major strategic goal isn’t powerful. If people can align around it, and it can be used to drive action, it’s far more effective than something intricate and complex that few understand and fewer can execute. Not too much complexity here: remember process and purpose above all. Did I miss something you think is important? Keeping it too simple? What has been successful and unsuccessful when driving alignment for you?Viva Goals Office Hours: Communications Planning for Your OKR Program AMA
Do you have questions about creating a strong and well-executed OKR communication strategy for team-level and leadership-level OKR planning meetings - including, creating a work back strategy for monthly reviews, quarterly closeouts, and annual financial planning? If the answer is yes - join us on this thread, on May 31st from 10:00 am - 10:30 am PST as Erin Donoso answers any questions you have about communications planning for your OKR program - post questions below in the thread and Erin will be here live on May 31st answering them! See you all then!The HR Digital Employee Experience Team experience and value leveraging Viva Goals
Our mission is all about enabling teams at Microsoft and external customers with awesome Viva customer experiences and that includes Viva Goals, providing a high level of value to achieve more across your team. Viva Goals facilitates critical alignment across the organization to establish key objectives, helping teams move together with greater purpose, while enabling focus and transparency of contributions and key results across team to thrive and achieve successful goals. Part of our evangelism of Viva Goals is about telling our lived story from an HR Digital Employee Experience perspective and the high level of value we've experienced in the one slide summary below. We are committed to help advise, answer questions and guide your experience at any phase in evaluation, test or adoption to discover what Viva Goals can do for you and your team. Please reach out at any time!
Viva Goals Creat Teams Bulk Upload fails, but no details
I am trying to upload a file to use the Bulk-Import feature on Viva Goals Team creation. I downloaded the template, added my info (including the required columns, fewer than 200 records), did not reformat or delete anything. I upload the file. The preview shows a correct slice of data, so it shows it can read the file. But three times now after several minutes, there is an error returned and zero teams created. When I download the report to see details, there are no additional details beyond "Failed". No error messages. Because of this, I don't know what to change in order to successfully upload. I've successfully used the OKR uploads in the past, as well as the Team upload. But now I'm not sure how to proceed. I am using a Windows/Dell PC, Firefox browser, Windows 11 OS.
Executive Report using Viva Dashboard
Hi Everyone, Recently I have been struggling in finding ways around the Viva dashboard to give a brief overview to our executive team. It seems that the functionalities of Viva dashboard is somewhat limited. Has anyone faced this same issue, or it just me not knowing all the features available in Viva Dashboard. I appreciate any response
